Boot Camp? Really?

   The morning he was to leave for training was drizzly and wet. Saying his farewells to Adak and making his was to the guard station, Nilo went over his plans once again in his mind. He walked absent-mindedly as he thought of joining the guard and making contacts in the city and using his psychic prowess to maneuver himself into a position of respect from both the city and the underworld. Things would go a bit different than he imagined, again.
  Arriving at the meeting spot and announcing himself with a flourish, the guardsman motioned for him absently to wait to the side. Shoved to the side like something on the man's to-do list. Nilo thought this guard must not have been made aware of Nilo's importance to the city. And so he waited, and waited. Soon, with hunger gnawing upon his ample belly, he approached the guard to inquire as to where he might eat. The ferocity in which he was told to return to the wall was unexpected and uncalled for, and yet it was obeyed....quickly.
  Thus began the shattering of Nilo's delusions of grandeur. After some time more recruits came and they were all loaded into the back of a huge wagon. Must have been 40 men shoved into a container meant to transport no more than 15. Nilo drew upon his meditative reserves to avoid jostling either the huge throon or the Amazon that looked at Nilo as though he were some insect from her far away homeland. He worried that maybe he had made another mistake.
  Leaving town the wagon finally stopped at a group of buildings that looked as though they had seen their share of use. As the 40 men(and women) he was with were shuffled across the ground to the mess hall he noticed a smaller group of men going through a gambit of gruelling, intensive exercise. Even the Throon in front of him looked concerned. Mistake, indeed.
  The food given them was barely edible, and as he pushed it around on the plate it was suddenly time to go. He hadn't finished yet, and yet it was gone. Nilo had reached his limit. He approached one of the sergeants to let him know he had made a mistake. The sergeant smiled a broken grin and stated "Well, yes lad you ARE making a mistake. Right NOW." With a quickness that belayed the man, Nilo was stuck unconscious. Later, Nilo was to find out that the sergeant had used him as an example and asked aloud if anyone else thought they had made a mistake. No one had.
  Nilo woke the next morning from his bunk, startled at sound of the magically amplified shouts from the sergeant to wake. Nilo looked around for his clothes and was shocked to see everyone standing naked at attention at the foot of their bunks. He quickly copied their movements. Directed not to move, a group of men moved their way through the recruits and measured each and every one precisely. It seemed they were due for some new clothes.
  Alas, this was not going to be the time for the clothes. The sergeant quickly moved the group from the barracks in military order, two by two. The drizzle had turned to a rain and the ground was solid mud, except for the painful rocks underfoot. Marched and exercised naked in the mud the group wore out quickly. Only the amazon seemed to keep pace with the terrible ferocity of the cadence.
  At the end of what seemed to be forever, the group was marched to a building in the rear of camp. As each person entered, a curtain of air and water washed over them, leaving them clean and dry. (And unknown to them, also deloused). Each recruit waited patiently for a stack of clothes and linen. Upon placing the ill fitting clothes on, Nilo was certain that the measurements could not have been made for this. Brown ill fitting pants and shirts, too tight on the throon and too loose on Nilo, all would have to make due.
  Shortly, the sergeant moved the group back to the barracks, only 18 hours into the day. First day down, two bunks empty. When did they leave? No time to contemplate as Nilo laid upon his bunk, too tired for ritual or meditation. Only to be startled into action what seemed like seconds later.
  This continued for what seemed like forever. Although Nilo was startled to see how fast he and the other recruits started to depend on each other. More dropped along the wayside, but Nilo knew he would be able to depend on the ones that were left when they hit the streets.
  At the end of the training the forty men and women had turned into a graduating class of fourteen. He clasped hands with his classmates as he wore his tailored Guard's uniform and they theirs. Nilo was to report back to the half-elf that allowed him into the guard. His first assignment was ready, and so was Constable Bertrand Nilo.